Guide 5 of 5 · folklore with its feet on the ground
Rosemary and lavender steeping in oil. Read on while it turns.
This is where the first four guides meet: a herb, steeped in a base oil, with a drop of essential oil for scent. The old alchemists called it maceration. Read Guide 1 for the oils and Guide 4 for the herbs you must leave out.
Everything below comes from a named source in our library, and each one is listed under its rule. Where our library is silent, we say so, and we don't guess.
An infused oil is a carrier oil combined with plant material, made at home or bought ready made. Steeping the plant in the oil over time is the same infusion as a tea, just with oil in place of water. Maceration is one of the two main ways carrier oils are made.
Sources: "Carrier oil", Wikipedia; "Infusion", Wikipedia.
Garlic kept in oil can spoil and can grow Clostridium botulinum, the bacterium behind botulism. Even a fridge does not make it safe: garlic in oil needs using within one month.
Water in fresh plants is what lets things grow in oil, so the Society steeps only well-dried herbs, and only for scent and ritual, never for eating.
Source: "Garlic", Wikipedia.
When the herb has steeped, strain it out, bottle the oil and keep it cool and away from strong light, which slows it going rancid. Rancid oil should be thrown away. Write the herb and the date on the label.
Sources: "Infusion", Wikipedia; "Carrier oil", Wikipedia.
If you want more scent, add the essential oil to the finished infused oil, at the same low strengths as Guide 1: the Aromantic catalogue gives 0.1% to 1% for its perfumes in body products, and warns that one drop in a pot of cream can be too much. Then do a skin sensitivity test before you use it.
Source: Aromantic Catalogue 2009.
Steeping doesn't make a dangerous herb safe. Comfrey is toxic to the liver, datura and foxglove are poisonous, and St John's wort can make skin sensitive to sunlight and interfere with medicines. Leave them all out of your oils.
Sources: "Symphytum", "Datura", "Digitalis purpurea" and "Hypericum perforatum", Wikipedia.
Our library has no sourced steeping time or temperature for home infused oils, so we won't give one. What we can say from our sources: dried herbs only, keep it cool and dark, and throw it away if it smells off.
In Real Alchemy, Robert Allen Bartlett describes rosemary's essential oil as the first of the plant's Three Essentials, the part the alchemists called its Sulfur, or soul. The Alchemist's Garret describes macerating lemon balm (Melissa), hot and cold, to draw out its essence.
Take the patience, not the furnace: one herb, one bottle, one purpose, made slowly.
Sources: R. A. Bartlett, Real Alchemy: A Primer of Practical Alchemy; The Alchemist's Garret.
The Society's five guides: 1 How to mix oils · 2 How to mix herbs · 3 Never mix these with your oils · 4 Never mix these herbs · 5 Herbs and oils together
This is folklore and general safety information from named sources. It is not medical advice. If you are pregnant, take medicines, have a health condition, or have children or animals at home, ask a pharmacist, doctor or vet before using herbs or essential oils. The Wand & The Crystal Ball Society is part of Peckham Crystals · Increatus, London.